Shah Aijaz CNI

New Delhi: A day after slapping India with sweeping trade penalties, chief among them a 25 per cent tariff on nearly all imports, US President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering tirade against New Delhi’s ties with Moscow, deriding both nations as “dead economies” and brazenly declaring he “does not care” what India does with Russia.

In a fiery post on Truth Social, Trump doubled down on his long-standing gripe over India’s trade practices, accusing the country of levying “among the highest tariffs in the world” and blaming New Delhi for what he claimed was “very little

business” between the two nations.“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,” he wrote, just hours after Washington’s move to slap 25 per cent duties, effective August 1.

Trump didn’t spare Moscow either. Taking aim at the Kremlin, he declared that the US and Russia “do almost no business together” and warned that it should “stay that way”.The post appeared to be a direct response to remarks made by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who had earlier warned that Trump was playing “the ultimatum game” with Russia – an approach he said could spiral into a war involving the United

States.“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with (Trump’s) own country,” Medvedev wrote.Trump hit back sharply, saying: “Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!”